Anti-Semitism: Again attack on Jewish man in Berlin

2019-08-14T10:34:17.114Z

In the district of Charlottenburg, two unknown persons persecuted a Jew and knocked him to the ground. The state protection investigates for hate crime.

In Berlin there was a new attack on a Jew. Police reported that a man of Jewish faith had been attacked in the district of Charlottenburg. Because of his clothes, he was externally recognizable as a Jew. Two people are said to have followed him before one of them pushed the 55-year-old from behind to the ground. Subsequently, the persecutors had fled. The attacker called the rescue service at home because of pain in the head and legs.

According to a spokesman, the police assume an anti-Semitic background. She handed over the case to the state police responsible for political crimes.

In recent weeks and months, anti-Semitic motivated attacks have accumulated. In mid-June, the Hamburg state rabbi Shlomo Bistritzky and a companion in front of the Hamburg City Hall were abused and threatened. In late July, the rabbi of the Jewish community, Yehuda Teichtal, was the victim of an attack in Berlin. Near a synagogue, two men cursed and spit at the rabbi, who was in the company of his children and had previously conducted a service in the district of Wilmersdorf.

A week later, a rabbi was attacked with his family in Munich. After visiting a synagogue in the Schwabing district, he spat on his two adult sons and was labeled as "shit Jews" by several people. A suspect had then submitted to the police, but denied an anti-Semitic motive.

Increase in violence against Jews

The Bavarian anti-Semitism commissioner Ludwig Spaenle (CSU) called the act an "attack on the whole Munich city society". Charlotte Knobloch, chairwoman of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, described the incident as "symptomatic of the difficult situation of many Jewish people today". The sense of security that is currently "getting further and further away" for Jews must be restored, the former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany warned.

"We have been seeing for some years that people who are publicly perceived as Jews are at an increased risk of being attacked," said Alexander Rasumny of the Federal Association of Research and Information Centers Anti-Semitism (RIAS) of the Jewish General.

The attacks on rabbis in recent weeks confirm this development. More than 300 anti-Semitic incidents have already been reported this year at RIAS-Berlin, including more than ten attacks. RIAS assumes a significantly higher number of unreported cases. According to police, in Berlin, the number of violent acts against Jews has increased by 60 percent compared to last year.